Goodyear welt inseam sewing and cutting guide



Nov. 20, A1962 J. A. RuBIco 3,064,597

GOODYEAR WELT INSEAM SEWING AND CUTTING GUIDE Filed May 22, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 +2 8 FIG. 2

FIG. 7

I5 INVENTOR. HG. e t? Q., 7M

Nov. 20, 1962 RuBlco 3,064,597

GOODYEAR WELT INSEAM SEWING AND CUTTING GUIDE Filed May 22, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 8 l

Yoke iIl Carrier Member y or Block f2| shield Buck-Ghuge Under Lip Member INV EN TOR.

3,064,597 GGDYEAR WELT INSEAM SEWING AND CUTTING GUlDE Jerome A. Ruhico, Boston, Mass., assigner to Batchelder Rubico, Inc., Boston, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Filed May 22, 1961, Ser. No. 111,537 12 Claims. (Cl. 112-46) This invention comprises a new and improved guide to carry and direct a Goodyear welt to the sewing point of a welt inseaming machine which both sews the welt to the shoe upper and insole, and cuts the welt off mechanically before'the conclusion of the inseaming operation.

inseaming machines as heretofore constructed when equipped with a welt cutting knife in advance of the sewing area have required separate guides for the cutting and sewing operations. One of thel principal features of this invention consists in combining in a single guide the functions of supporting the welt in advance of the cutting or severing line and also inthe sewingarea beyond the cutting line. This combining into one guide of the functions heretofore performed by twoV separate guides is achieved by making three of the components of the guide, namely the shield, the back gauge and the upper lip each in one piece, with registering recesses at an intermediate point in their lengths to provide clearance for the welt cutting knifev and by supporting these three components by means of a single mechanism. By this novel construction the adjustment of the new combination cutting and sewing guide of the present invention in the inseaming machine and the maintenance of the guide after its initial adjustment are greatly facilitated and simplified.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a single welt guide with a minimum number of parts so constructed and arranged that without special adjustments or time consuming changes, or use of several different guides, many different sizes and cross-sections of welting may be accurately presented and sewn to the shoe bottoms, and cut by the automatic cut-off knife prior to the completion of the inseaming of each shoe.

These and other features of the invention will be best understood and appreciated from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawings in which- FIGS. 1 and 5 are plan views of the welt guide seen respectively from above and below as mounted in an inseaming machine,

FIG. 2 is a view n cross section on the line 2-2 of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a view of the guide in side elevation,

FIG. 4 is a view of the guide in front elevation,

FIG. 6 is a cross sectional view on the line 6-6 of FIG. 5,

FIG. 7 is a view in cross section, similar to FIG. 2, but showing a modified construction and a portion of the bracket in which the guide is mounted, and

FIG. 8 is a view showing the component parts of the guide in exploded relation.

The improved welt guide as herein shown is made up of tive principal components, each completely fashioned from an integral piece of steel or other suitable alloy. These are separately shown in FIG. 8 and comprise a yoke having spaced flanges 10 and 11, a block or carrier l l i member having a at web 17, a shield having a tubular portion 23, 25, a back gauge having a shouldered ledge 32, and an under lip member having a front edge 43 of reduced thickness.

In describing the several components of the guide it is to be understood that the word longitudinal is used to describe directions more or less parallel to the front face of the guide shield and the length of the welting passing through the guide, and that the word transverse is used to mean a direction approximately normal to the face of the guide. The yoke is rectangular in contour and has parallel flanges 1t? and 11 spaced apart, as best shown in FIG. 2, to receive between them the block or carrier member and the Shanks of the shield and of the under lip. The uppermost ange 11 as shown in FIG. 8 is provided with a longitudinal shoulder 12 and both flanges have registering longitudinal slots 13. The body of the yoke merges intoV a rearwardly projecting cylindrical stem 14 by which the complete guide is adjustably clamped in a bracket of the inseaming machine in substantially the horizontal position shown in FIG. 1.

The flanges lil and 11 of the yoke are made longer than the body or bridge portion of the yoke which connects the flanges to the stein 14 to allow lateral adjustment of the four major components (block, shield, back gauge, and under lip) which are mounted between the flanges of the yoke. This construction permits the cylinders 18 and 19 of the block, to be described hereinafter, to be made longer, by extending them beyond the body of the yoke and part of the stem 14.

The bracket used to support the combined sewing and cutting guide of the present invention on the inseaming machine is similar in construction to the two brackets currently used to support the separate but juxtapositioned cutting and sewing guides now used for these functions. The bracket itself is not considered to be part of this invention, and no claims are made therefor. The bracket 50 used with the guide of the present invention differs from those heretofore used principally in that the hole in which stem 14 of the yoke is clamped angles upwardly forwardly, preferably from twelve to fifteen degrees above the horizontal as suggested in FIG. 7.

The block or carrier member has a at intermediate web 17 which merges at its opposite sides into cylinders 1S and 19 each having a bore and thus providing chambers to receive the stems or plungers 31 of the back gauge. The cylinders 13 and 19 are made as raised bosses at each side of web 17, and are spaced apart to receive between their inward edges shank 21 of the shield above web 17 and shank 41 of the under lip below the web. In practice the block may be made approximately two inches wide and one and one-eighth inches long from back to front and approximately one-half inch thick. Between the cylinders 18 and 19 the web is reduced by approximately three thirty-seconds of an inch at the top and by three-sixteenths inch at the bottom.

The web 17 has a center hole 20 for the passage of a clamping bolt in registration with the slots 13 of the yoke. As the `distance between the channel guide of the inseaming machine and the point where the bracket attaches thereto is limited, the transverse length of web 17 is reduced at the back, preferably about three-eighths inch. This construction allows the face of the assembled guide to be correctly positioned relative to the cutting knife and the channel guide of the inseamer without sacrificing the desired one-inch length of the chambers of cylinders 18 and 19.

To provide for a greater thickness of material in the center portion of the back gauge where it bridges across the back of the slot or recess for the passage of the cutting knife, the web 17 may also be shortened in front some three thirty-seconds of an inch.

The shield comprises a flat body portion merging rearwardly into shank 21 provided with a registering bolt hole 22 and forwardly into an elongated passage which is hookshaped in cross section and angled rearwardly toward the right as seen in FIG. 8. In general this passage is shaped to receive the welting and is open at its rear or inner side. It is divided by an intermediate slot or recess 24 into portions 23 and 25. The slot 24 provides for the passage of the welt-cutting knife and it will thus be seen that the portion 23 of the shield supports and directs the welting up to the line of severance and that the portion 25supports the welting up to the sewing area. The left end 25 of this passage is provided with notches 26 in its top portion and in Vits front face providing clearance for the awl and needle of the inseann'ng machine. The right hand side of the recess or notch 24 isv sloped and angled to conform to the oblique path of the welt-cutting knife as suggested in FIG. 4.

The shank of the shield is made approximately three thirty-seconds of an inch thick and is mounted above the web 17 of the block and next under the upper ange 11 of the yoke. The shield is increased in thickness in its forward portion and provided with a longitudinal shoulder 29 on its under side, which shoulder cooperates with a similar upstanding shoulder 36 on the upper side of the back gauge to limit the forward movement of the self-adjusting spring-actuated back gauge when no welt is in the guide. The entering end of the guide is ared as shown in FIG. 4 to facilitate reception of the welting.

The hook-shaped welt-carrying passage portions 23 and 25 of the shield are made in the doubly stepped design with two recesses and two relatively flat shoulders disclosed in my copending application, Serial No. 28,764, tiled May l2, 1960 for a welt sewing guide for an inseaming machine which does not have the double feature of sewing and cutting the welt before the completion of the inseaming operation. 'I'he shield portion of the guide of my present invention is of a cross-section in its weltcarrying area like that shown in my copending case.

The forward interior portion of the hook-shaped passage o-f the shield is angled upwardly forwardly at about live degrees, the better to accommodate the hinge of the Y welt, as shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 7. This upward tilt, together with the upward tilt of the whole guide mechanism provided by the inclination of the hole in the bracket in which stem 14 of the yoke is clamped, carries the welt at the optimum angle for proper inseaming to the shoe bOOm.

The back gauge which engages the rear or back edge of the welting comprises a body 30 having a pair of rearwardly extending posts or stems 31 arranged to iit and slide in the cylinders 18 and 19 of the block. The forward edge portion 32 of the back gauge is stepped down to a reduced thickness forming a longitudinal shoulder 36 between the body 30 and the edge portion 32. 'This shoulder 36 is designed to contact the corresponding shoulder 29 of the shield formed between the thinner back part and the thicker welt-passage portions 23 and 25 thereof. The contact of these two shoulders limits the forward motion of the back gauge when no welting is in the guide. The forward edge 32 of the back gauge may be inclined toward the right as shown in FIG. 8 to correspond with the elongated passage of the shield and is angled upwardly on its under side to clear the correspending upward slope of the top of the forward edge of the under lip.

The forward edge 32 and part of the body 30 of the back gauge are provided with an intermediate slot or notch 33 to provide for the passage of the welt-cutting knife. This notch is sloped and angled to clear the knife when the back gauge is forward to its limit with no welting in the guide, or way back to take the widest welt. As the notch 33 cuts deeply into the body 30, the body may be further strengthened by having some three thirtyseconds of an inch of additional transverse thickness of material along its back edge where body 30 bridges across the rearmost corner of notch 33.

The back gauge is urged forwardly against the welting by compression springs 35 which encircle extension stems on the back ends of the posts 31 within the chambers of cylinders 18 and 19. A finger piece 34 projects downwardly from the body of the back gauge through the elongated transverse slot 46 of the under lip. This finger piece provides a convenient meansY of retracting the gauge for introducing the welting into the guide. With welting in the guide the back gauge yieldingly engages its outer edge and holds its hinge or inseam sewing edge continuously against the concave inner surface of the portions 23 and 25 of the passage of the shield.

As some welting, specically what is known as splitreverse leather welting, can be inseamed better if it is held under increased pressure in the guide, the finger piece 34 may be made in an alternate construction which permits the temporary locking in a fixed position of the otherwise self-adjusting back gauge. This alternate construction is shown in FIG. 7 where the lower end of the stem of a screw 34 is threaded like a bolt. After Vthe several components of the guide are assembled in their operating positions, a nut 37 is run up loosely on the threaded depending stem of the screw 34', under the under lip, and a removable cap nut 38 is tightened over the end of the threaded stem to keep the loose nut 37 from dropping off. This cap nut 38 may be globular in shape and serves as the finger-contacting portion. By this construction, after the several components of the guide are positioned and bolt 15 is tightened, the back gauge may be left free and self-adjusting, or it can be locked in a desired position of transverse or in and out adjustment by tightening the upper nut 37 on the screw against the under side of the under lip.

The upper lip component of the guide has a flat body merging rearwardly into a shank 41 of a width to fit between the cylinders 18 and 19 of the block, and forwardly into a front edge portion 43. The upper lip is made approximately three sixteenths of an inch thick. Its shank portion 41 which mounts under web 17 of the block lies above the lower flange 10 of the yoke and is provided with a transverse slot 42. This slot 42 registers with the bolt holes of the block, shield and yoke, and its transverse length permits the upper lip to be closed forwardly for at welting or opened rearwardly to permit a beaded welting to pass through the guide. To help the operator to open or close the upper lip, a finger piece 48 may be provided on the under side of the upper lip. This adjustment can be made only when the clamping bolt 15 s loosened.

The body of the under lip is provided with a transverse slot 46 to provide for the free forward and back motion of the depending finger piece 34 of the back gauge and also a longitudinal slot 45 to allow the operator of the inseaming machine to reach and advance the welting manually when the automatic welt feed mechanism of the machine fails to do so after the welt has been cut oif by the welt-cutting knife.

As shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 7 the upper surface of the forward edge 43 of the under lip is inclined upwardlyto correspond to the upward angle of the welt-carrying concave portion of the shield and to give closer support to the platform area of an inverted welt during the inseaming and cutting operations of the machine. The lower part of this forward edge 43 is reduced in thickness to permit the upper lip to be closed over the second or lower shoulder of the concave portions 23 and 25 of the passage of the shield for sewing and cutting flat welting, as

` shown in FIGS. 3 and 7.

'33 of the back gauge, and is designed to clear the knife when the underlip is either open or closed and also to give a maximum of Support to the welting when it is being cut.

A feature of the guide of this invention which is not apparent from the drawings is that the right end of the top of the shield which ares upwardly, and the right end of the upper lip, as shown in FIG. 4, both extend further to the right and nearer to the automatic welt-advancing mechanism of the inseaming machine than is the case with the cutting guide now used on this machine, thereby lessening the chances of this mechanism failing to push the welting across the open space where it is unsupported.

The component parts which have now been individually described are assembled and held together by a single clamping bolt 15 as shown in FIGS. 1-7. The nut of this bolt is held against turning by the shoulder 12 of the upper ange 11 of the yoke, while the bolt itself may be tightened by turning its head. It will be clear from FIGS. 2 and 7 that the web 17 of the block, the shank 21 of the shield and the shank 41 of the under lip are held between the anges and 11 of the yoke and are secured in that position by the bolt 15. The elongated slots 13 in the anges of the yoke permit lateral adjustment in all the guide parts which are clamped by the bolt 15 within the anges of the yoke without loosening the stem of the yoke in the bracket in which it is clamped.

The inseaming machine is equipped with a bracket 50, as shown in FIG. 7, in which the welt guide as a whole may be adjustably clamped through the medium of the stem 14 of the yoke. This bracket is bored to receive the stem 14 and provided with a clamping bolt 51. By loosening this bolt the guide may -be adjusted forwardly or rearwardly, and also angularly by swiveling the shank 14, and then clamped in the desired position. The bracket itself is slotted and adjustably secured to the frame of the machine by a bolt 52 which thus permits further adjustment of all the parts supported thereby.

Having thus disclosed my invention and described in detail an illustrative embodiment thereof I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. A guide to carry the welting on a Goodyear welt inseaming machine organized both to sew the welt to the shoe and to cut the welt mechanically at a point in advance of the sewing area, said guide comprising a yoke having a supporting stem, a chambered and channeled block, a shield formed with a passage of hook-shaped cross section, a spring activated self-adjusting back gauge, and an upper lip, together with means for clamping these parts to said block in their designed relationship, and springs to activate the back gauge, the shield, gauge, and lip portions of the guide being each of integral construction.

2. A welt 'guide of the type described in claim l in which said back gauge is made with one end portion arranged to support the welt in advance of the cutting area and the other end portion arranged to support the welt at the sewing area, with a recess between the two end portions of the back gauge to clear the welt cutting knife.

3. A welt guide of the type described in claim 1 in which said upper lip is made with one end portion arranged to support the welt in advance of the cutting area and the other end portion arranged to support the welt at the sewing area, with a recess in the under lip located between the two end portions to clear the Welt cutting knife.

4. vA welt Iguide automatically adjustable for welts of dierent shapes, comprising a shield having a hook-shaped passage for supporting the welt throughout a substantial portion of its length, a slot formed in the shield and its axis intersecting the axis of said passage thereby providing clearance for a welt cutting knife, and a spring pressed back gauge having a slot registering with that of the shield.

5. A welt guide as described in claim 4, further characterized by an upper lip cooperating with the shield for controlling the path of the Welt and having also a slot registering with that of the shield.

6. A welt guide comprising a ilanged yoke having a supporting stem, a block clamped between the flan-ges of the yoke and having spaced parallel tubular chambers, a back gauge having spaced plungers slidable in said chambers, a shield having a shank clamped between the flanges of the yoke, and an upper lip member having a shank also clamped between the flanges of the yoke and a shouldered lip cooperating with the shield in controlling the passage of the welt, the said shield, upper lip and back gauge having registering recesses adapted for the passage of a welt-cutting knife.

7. A welt guide having a shield with a flat shank merging into an extended welt passage that is hook-shaped in cross section, disposed at an inclination with respect to the shank and intersected at an intermediate point by a recess adapted for the passage of a welt cutting knife, the said recess dividing the passage of the shield into welt supporting areas on both sides of the line and a back gauge movably mounted in the opening of the passage of the shield, spanning the passage and slotted in line with the recess of the shield to aiford clearance for the welt cutting knife.

8. A guide to carry the welting on a Goodyear welt inseaming machine organized both to sew the welt to the shoe bottom and to cut the welt mechanically at a point in advance of the sewing area, said guide comprising a yoke having a supporting stem, a carrier block partially enclosed and adjustably mounted in said yoke, a shield having an elongated welt passage of hook-shaped cross section also secured to the yoke, a spring-activated back gauge carried by said yoke and located adjacent the shield, and an upper lip also secured to the yoke and located adjacent the back gauge, an upstanding shoulder on the upper side of the back gauge and a depending shoulder on the under side of the shield being adapted to Contact and limit movement of said spring-activated back gauge.

9. A welt guide of the type described in claim 8 in which the spring-activated self-adjusting back gauge is further equipped with a locking device by means of a threaded screw depending from the back gauge through a slot in the overlying upper lip and a nut is provided on said screw which may be tightened against the upper lip to hold the back gauge temporarily in any desired position.

10. A welt guide for inseaming machines, comprising a carrier block having a pair of spaced parallel cylinders and a perforated connecting web, a shield having a shank clamped to the web of said block and an elongated weltguiding passage supported by said shank in front of said cylinders and being open along and at its rear or inner side, a back gauge having spaced spring operated posts slidably received in said cylinders and a connecting weltengaging portion supplementing the welt-guiding passage of said shield, the said shield and back gauge having registering slots providing clearance for the passage of a welt-cutting knife.

l1. A welt guide as described in claim l0 in which said carrier block also supports an upper lip member for engaging the welt at the open side of said guide, which member has an aperture through which the welt strip may be reached and manually advanced.

12. A welt carrying guide of the type described comgoese@ ,7 Y prising a supporting yoke, a carrier block fitting in said yoke, a shield having an elongated Welt passage having an inclined slot at an intermediate point providing clearance for a welt cutting knife, an upper lip mounted in said yoke adjustable transversely relative to said passage l' and having an inclined slot registering with that of the shield, and a bolt for clamping the shield, carrier block and upper lip in diierent adjusted positions With respect to the supporting yoke.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Gray Oct. 24, 1916 Oliver Mar. 20, 1934 Y Carter Sept. 18, 1956 f Rubico Mar. 24, 1959 Miller Aug. 11, 1959' Black Jan. 26, 1960 

